Last month, the University of Michigan-Flint hosted the 18th annual Meeting of Minds Undergraduate Research Conference, an effort jointly sponsored by the Flint and Dearborn campuses of the University of Michigan and Oakland University. Over 300 people – including student presenters, faculty, volunteers, and guests gathered on campus throughout the day to celebrate the research and creative efforts made by our students. We had an amazing day!

The Office of Research would like to extend our special thanks to the following individuals and departments for helping us make the event a tremendous success:

Departments
Gina Rose, Carol Wedel, Jessica Rawlings, and the Event Building Services staff
Stacy Lee and the Registrar’s staff
Chalmers Sanders, Kathy Howe, and the Public Safety staff
Melissa Storch and the Mediated Classroom Services staff
University Catering Services
Doron Pratt and the Bridges to Success staff
The Genesee Early College
Brian DiBlassio and the UM-Flint Jazz Ensemble

Event speakers
Dr. Ruth Person
Dr. Vahid Lotfi
Dr. Terry Van Allen
Carmin Burrell, doctoral student

Volunteers
Kenneth Litwin
Sandy Alberto
Heather Dawson
Quamrul Mazumder
Olanrewaju Aluko
Ryan Thomas
Amalie Helms
Roy Barnes
Bonnie Heckard
Sheril Howse
Peggy Roddy
Dana Dyson
Julie Broadbent
Tom Wrobel
Jennifer Hogan
Lola Carter
Sue Koehler
Marilyn Harvey
Megan Lloyd
Renea Rishmawi
Susanna Tippett
Gedaerah Morgan
Mary Bickes
John Collins
Andrea Yinger
Jeanette Routhier
Herb Bursch
Lona Wood
JiSoo Lee
Michael Lengyel
Darryl Howard-Coolin

We are looking forward to another spectacular Meeting of Minds event next year, when Oakland University will be the host.

Thanks for supporting MOM and undergraduate research at UM-Flint!

We’re happy to announce that senior UROP student, Nkemdilim Nwodo represented the University at the 24th annual National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR). This year’s NCUR was hosted by the University of Montana in Missoula, MT.

Nkemdilim presented her research project entitled “High School Dropout Rates in Michigan School Districts: The Influence of Poverty, Educational Attainment, and Location for the Years 2004-2007.” Dr. Dana Dyson from Political Science is her faculty advisor.

Congratulations on your efforts Nkemdilim!

We’re happy to announce that two of our students – Cameron Waites and Nkemdilim Nwodo – have been accepted to present at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research! Cameron (facutly advisors, Suzanne Selig and Maureen Thum) will be presenting his paper entitled “Oligodendrogenesis After Hypoxic-ischemic Stroke in the Mouse Brain” and Nkemdilim (facutly advisor, Dana Dyson) will be presenting her paper entitled “High School Dropout Rates in Michigan School Districts: The Influence of Poverty, Educational Attainment, and Location for the Years 2004-2007”

This year’s NCUR will take place on the campus of the University of Montana. Congrats, Cameron and Nkemdilim!

For more information about his year’s NCUR, please visit: http://www.umt.edu/ncur2010/default.aspx

Upcoming deadlines for Undergraduate Research Conferences:

Posters on the Hill

As a final notice, the deadline for the 2010 Posters on the Hill Conference is on Tues. Nov 10, by 11:59 pm. Posters on the Hill is a poster conference hosting by the Council on Undergraduate Research where selected students from across the nation have the opportunity to present their research at the Nation’s Capitol. The deadline to submit an abstract is coming up soon! 

For more information about Posters on the Hill, please visit: http://www.umflint.edu/research/student_programs/CUR/posters_hill.htm or directly on the CUR website at: http://www.cur.org/pohcall.html 

National Conference on Undergraduate Research 

It’s not too late to register for the National Conference on Undergraduate Research. The event showcases the work of hundreds of students from across the nation. Though NCUR is celebrating its 24th year now, UM-Flint has just recently began having students present at the event. If you would like to take your research up a notch and present at the national level, NCUR is for you. 

This year’s event will take place at the University of Montana. Once I know how many students are accepted to present, we will make our arrangements. The last date to submit an abstract is Dec. 4, 2009  The last date to submit an abstract has been extended to Dec. 9, 2009 by midnight.  Any interested students must have a faculty advisor and must list me as the institutional contact. Submit before it’s too late! For more information, please visit: http://www.umflint.edu/research/student_programs/NCUR/home.htm

On May 15, nearly 50 students from UM-Flint participated in the annual Meeting of Minds (MOM) Undergraduate Research Conference at UM-Dearborn.  Congratulations to all the student presenters and thank you to all the UM-Flint faculty who attended the event.  For more information about MOM – including the journals for the past few years – visit the Meeting of Minds homepage.

UM-Flint undergraduates Anthony Vida, Alexander Findlater, Hyeonjin Cho, and Trisiani Affandi will be presenting results of their research projects at the American Chemical Society in Salt Lake City, Utah, March 21-24. 

Anthony will be presenting work from his project entitled “B-Amino acid conformational energies and solvent effect.” Alexander’s project is entitled “Ground and low-lying excited states of C₂O₄.”  Hyeonjin (or Katie, as she likes to be called) will present her work on “Theoretical studies of peptide nucleic acid (PNA) monomers”. Finally, Trisiani will present her work on “Ground state and low-lying exciting states of NIC₂.” Dr. Jie Song is serving as faculty advisor for all four students.

Congratulations Anthony, Alexander, Katie, and Trisiani!

Waites’ paper “Pathetic Fool Or Political Operator: The Role of Polonius in Shakespeare’s Hamlet” explores the role of one of the playwright’s most misunderstood characters. The paper looks to examine how Shakespeare used Polonius as, according to Waites, “an astute manipulator who puts politics before personal relationships.” 

As an NCUR presenter, Waites will have 15 minutes to present his paper, in addition to a five minute session for responding to audience questions.

Established in 1987, NCUR has consistently been one of the largest national conferences for promoting undergraduate research, creative, and scholastic achievement. This three-day event draws thousands of visitors each year as well as hundreds of talented students representing over 400 colleges and universities nationally. Additonal information about NCUR can be found at http://www.ncur.org/.

Congratulations Cameron!